Bad Deeds for 4-1-2008

Texas Prosecutes Little Old Ladies for Voter Fraud – Willie Ray was a 69-year-old African-American City Council member from Texarkana who wanted her granddaughter, Jamillah Johnson, to learn about civil rights and voting during the 2004 presidential election. The pair helped homebound seniors citizens get absentee ballots, and once they were filled out, put them in the mail.

Fort Worth’s Gloria Meeks, 69, was a church-going, community activist who proudly ran a phone bank and helped homebound elderly people like Parthenia McDonald, 79, to vote by mail. McDonald, whose mailbox was two blocks away from her home (she recently died), called Meeks “an angel” for helping her, a friend of both women said.

And until he recently moved out of state, Walter Hinojosa, a retired school teacher and labor organizer from Austin, was another Democratic Party volunteer who helped elderly and disabled people vote by getting them absentee ballots and mailing them.

Today, Ray and Johnson have criminal records for breaking Texas election law and faced travel restrictions during a six-month probation. Gloria Meeks is in a nursing home after having a stroke, prompted in part, her friends say, by state police who investigated her — including spying on Meeks while she bathed — and then questioned her about helping McDonald and others to vote. Hinojosa, meanwhile, has left Texas.

Their crime: not signing their name, address and signature on the back of the ballots they mailed for their senior neighbors, and carrying envelopes containing those ballots to the mailbox. Since 2005, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been prosecuting Democratic Party activists, almost all African-Americans and Latinos, as part of an effort to eradicate what he said was an “epidemic” of voter fraud in Texas.

Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell Says Fox News Coverage of Democratic Primaries is Most Balanced – “I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present — FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I’m only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right.”

So, Rendell is endorsing objective reporting like the bogus Fox story that Obama was educated in a madrassa in Indonesia,. Even one of Fox’s star reporters blasted Fox’s lack of “objectivity” on Obama recently. Since Fox News has also been critical of Clinton lately, is Rendell calling them “objective” because they run biased stories bashing BOTH Democratic candidates?

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao Hurts Workers, Helps Corporations (A Lot!) – Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Labor, George W. Bush’s longest-serving cabinet member, and wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Elaine’s record on the safety and health of workers is negligent at best, and at worst has led to numerous tragedies that could have been prevented. Her policies have also robbed Americans of the fair pay and compensation they deserve. Elaine has littered the Department of Labor with individuals holding a blatant, corporate agenda. Letting corporate lawbreakers off the hook, while waging an assault on America’s union movement, are just two of the dubious initiatives that have defined Elaine’s tenure.

Covert Film Finally Exposes Taiji’s Annual Dolphin Horror – For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation. This film shows the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins — together with the resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content.

Chrysler Retirees Lose Life Insurance – Chrysler LLC’s white-collar retirees are losing free life insurance benefits but are eligible for a one-time pension boost of up to $4,000, according to a letter retirees should receive this week. Previously retirees were covered by a life insurance policy at no charge, with a death benefit equal to their last year of pay, for those who retired before 2003, or $50,000 for those who retired after that. Chrysler is allowing affected retirees a one-time opportunity to buy into a voluntary plan through MetLife at a reduced, group rate.

While Big Oil is Taking Tax Subsidies and Not Investing in Renewable Resources Amid Record Prices and Record Profits, Glenn Beck Wants You to Know That Big Oil Profits Are Good for You

Regards,

Jim